[Peace] News notes 2005-04-17

[C. G. Estabrook]

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	Notes from last week's "global war on terrorism,"
	for the AWARE meeting, Sunday, April 17, 2005.
	(Sources provided on request; a paragraph followed
	by a bracketed source is substantially verbatim.)
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[1. OCCUPATION] The upsurge in violence across Iraq in the past four days
has left Pentagon claims that the tide is turning in Iraq and there are
hopeful signs of a return to normality in tatters. [P. Cockburn]
	The New York Times describes today how weapons and equipment that
were looted from Iraqi weapons installations after Baghdad fell in April
2003 are now appearing at open-air markets across Iraq; the US military
has become a regular customer. US forces are restoring vehicles and
equipment that belonged to Saddam Hussein's army and must therefore buy
parts from other looters (although that's not the way the NYT puts it).
	In an article today on what are called "democracy movements"  in
Arab countries, the WP notes in passing that "The Arab movements are, in
many cases, increasingly tethered [sic] by the work of US-funded democracy
programs..."
	In Chicago, protesters gathered Wednesday outside the shareholders
meeting of bulldozer manufacturer Caterpillar. Solidarity protests are
also scheduled in 40 cities around the world. The activists -- led by the
Stop Cat Coalition -- are calling on Caterpillar to stop selling
bulldozers to the Israeli military
	In Iraq, Al Jazeera is reporting that US airstrikes near the city
al-Qaim have killed 20 Iraqis and injured 22 more. Among the dead were
reportedly seven children, six women and three old men. [DN]

[2. TERRORISM] One of the CIA's best known anti-Cuban terrorists applied
Tuesday for political asylum in the United States. Luis Posada Carriles is
responsible for blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing 73
passengers; a series of 1997 bombings in Havana; and a plot to assassinate
Castro. On Tuesday Democratic Congressman William Delahunt of
Massachusetts called for a federal investigation into how Posada entered
the country. He also called for Posada to be arrested and deported.
Delahunt said that if the US facilitated Posada's entry into the country
it would "obliterate America's credibility in the war on terrorism."

[3. TORTURE] Lawyers in Boston representing six detainees being held at
Guantanamo Bay filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the US
government. The suit alleges widespread abuse and torture at the prison.
All six detainees are Algerian nationals [who were accused of] plotting to
blow up the US Embassy in Sarajevo in November 2001. All were acquitted by
Bosnia's highest court, but US agents arrested them anyway as they left
the courthouse and took them to Guantanamo. The United Nations' top human
rights official in Bosnia said the arrest of the men undermined the
respect for the rule of law, due process, and human rights.  [DN]
	Iraq's outgoing human rights minister -- Bakhtiar Amin -- has
admitted that the conditions of Iraqi run jails are deplorable. He said
"None of the Iraqi detention centers meet international standards for
cleanliness, food and the treatment of prisoners. Neither are the
buildings up to standard." Agence France Press is reporting that 17,000
men and women are now being held in US or Iraqi run jails. About two
thirds of the detainees have never been formally charged. [DN]

[4. MILITARY] US army figures indicate that since the invasion of Iraq in
March 2003, about 5500 military personnel have gone AWOL. [AJ]
	Washington DC Mayor Anthony Williams announced that the stadium
formally named for Robert F. Kennedy would become the "Armed Forces Field
at RFK." Under the terms of deal, the military would pay $6 million over
three years for recruitment kiosks and signage within the stadium itself,
though they would not be formally purchasing the stadium's naming rights.
The money is slated to benefit programs for children across the city.

[5. ECONOMY] US stocks finished at 5 1/2-month lows on Friday -- in the
third straight day of steep declines -- in part because of troubles at big
US corporations, notably IBM and GM, the price of oil, and interest rate
rises by the US central bank. The Dow-Jones average had its biggest
one-day drop in two years. Stocks have now erased the gains built up in a
rally that started around November's presidential election.
	The House passes a bankruptcy bill 272-162 that will penalized
particularly people with large medical costs. Our Rep. Johnson naturally
voted for it; only one Republican voted against it -- Representative Jim
Leach (R-IA).  Congressman Jim McDermott called it the "Credit Card
Company Enslavement Act of 2005." [DN]
	Perhaps now is a time to press for single-payer health care. In a
NYT op-ed Friday, Paul Krugman described the expensive and inefficient US
health care system.
	Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr swears he'll veto the Fair
Share Health Care Act "in a heartbeat." A heartbeat, we're guessing,
that's covered by better insurance than you get if you work at Wal-Mart,
the only employer in the state with more than 10,000 employees that
doesn't spend at least 8% of its payroll on health benefits. So if you
want to make Ehrlich wait at least two heartbeats before looking out for
the company that threw a $1000 a head fundraiser for him last December,
there's a petition you can sign. Or if you like your Wal-Mart greeters
sick and surly, don't. [Wonkette.com]
	The Washington Post today describes a drug scandal: the nation's
pediatric vaccine stockpile is in danger, owing to its control by
for-profit drug makers.

[6. REPRESSION] The US govt no-fly list grown to more than 31,000 names,
up from 19,000 last September ... the Transportation Security
Administration is seeking to expand the use of the no-fly list, proposing
that all foreign airlines, even those not flying to a US destination,
[enforce] the list if they are flying over US airspace. [Time]
	In a massive dragnet, US Marshals led more than 90 state, local
and other federal police agencies last week in arresting over 10,000
people across the country on outstanding warrants, the Justice Department
revealed Thursday. Code-named Operation Falcon, for Federal and Local Cops
Organized Nationally, the unprecedented federally-coordinated mass arrests
were staged for maximum political and media impact. Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales used the operation as the subject of his first news
conference since the confirmation of his controversial nomination. The
Justice Department, meanwhile, supplied the television networks
government-shot action videotape of Marshals and local cops raiding homes
and breaking down doors. The footage was aired on news programs...
	The political purpose of the dragnet was underscored by the fact
that law enforcement officials privately acknowledged that most of those
arrested in the nationwide raids would have been picked up in any case in
the course of normal police work.
	The piling up of massive arrest numbers in a brief seven-day
period was made possible through an expenditure of $900,000 from the US
Marshals Service budget and the use of overtime to quadruple its personnel
assigned to pursuing fugitives...
	While US authorities highlighted the apprehension of 160 murder
suspects and 550 sexual assault suspects, it appeared that by far the
largest share of those arrested were minor drug offenders. Narcotics
violations accounted for fully 4,300 out of the 10,340 arrests. In several
areas of the country, authorities reported that the raids filled local
jails to overflowing.
	Justice Department officials sought to link the mass arrests in
the public mind to the "war on terrorism," though none of those picked up
are accused of terrorist acts. As one news report on the Washington press
conference announcing the operation put it, "...officials said the
exercise was an opportunity to show the benefits of cooperative law
enforcement in an age of terrorism."
	Attorney General Gonzales told reporters, "Operation FALCON is an
excellent example of President Bush's direction and the Justice
Department's dedication to deal both with the terrorist threat and
traditional violent crime" ...
	The announcement comes barely one week after Gonzales went before
the Senate Judiciary Committee to urge renewal of sections of the USA
Patriot Act that are set to expire at the end of this year...
	The media and local police officials throughout the country have
repeated the claims of the Justice Department and the US Marshals Service
that the recent arrests are the greatest number ever in a single
operation. In point of fact, the numbers are roughly equivalent to those
achieved by one of Gonzales's predecessors, Alexander Mitchell Palmer, who
headed the Justice Department 85 years ago, in the liberal Democratic
Wilson administration. The Palmer Raids were launched on November 7, 1919,
the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution...
	This is an administration that has asserted the right of the US
president to declare anyone -- citizen and non-citizen alike -- an "enemy
combatant," and lock him up indefinitely without charges, without the
right to a public hearing or lawyer, and without even an official
acknowledgement that the person has been thrown into prison. [WSWS]
	Last Pearl Harbor Day (Dec. 7, 2004), the US Central Command in
Iraq announced that "IRAQI POLICE OFFICERS JOIN WITH FIRST TEAM [= US 1str
Cavalry Division] FOR OPERATION" -- and they called it "Operation Falcon
Freedom"...
	And we have the New York cops, including that thug Kerik, Mafia
killers, and the preparers of lying testimony. Of the nearly 1,700 cases
involving arrests at last year's Republican National Convention that have
run their full course, 91 percent ended with the charges dismissed or with
a verdict of not guilty after trial. In one case it became apparent that
the New York Police Department tampered with video evidence ...
prosecutors immediately dropped the charges. The city now claims that a
technician had cut material out of the video by mistake.  [DM]
	Newly released court transcripts have given new insight into how
detainees at Guantanamo Bay were treated when they appeared before
military judges last year. During one proceeding a British detainee --
Feroz Ali Abbasi -- was ejected from a hearing after he repeatedly
challenged the legality of his detention. When Abbasi said, "I have the
right to speak" the judge responded saying, "No, you don't." The judge
went on to say "I don't care about international law. I don't want to hear
the words 'international law' again. We are not concerned with
international law." Later the tribunal found Abbasi to be "deeply
involved" in Al Qaeda. However four months later the government released
him. [DN]

[7. EU] A "no" vote to the European Constitution would weaken the EU and
benefit the United States, warned French President Jacques Chirac,
Thursday ... Chirac said that France and Europe would in the future face
other super powers such as the United States, China, Russia and even
Brazil and the rest of Latin America. The French will vote May 29 in a
national referendum if they should support the European constitution.
[UPI]

[8. IRAN] SOS Rice is playing down the Iranian nuclear threat as Israeli
lobby groups in the US increase their propaganda on the matter. In an
interview with the WSJ published Thursday, she said that the USG will
decide this summer whether to pursue the matter at the United Nations
Security Council, and that the Israelis had provided "no new revelation"
on Iran's alleged nuclear program.
	Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Wednesday in a CNN-TV
interview that Israel will not mount a unilateral attack aimed at
destroying Iran's nuclear capability.  Iran is years away from possessing
a nuclear weapon, Sharon said, but warned that Iran is only months away
from solving "technical problems" toward building a nuclear weapon. [AP]

[9. ISRAEL] The two-month-old Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire appears to be
in jeopardy. On Saturday, Israeli troops shot dead three 15-year-old
Palestinian boys in the Gaza town of Rafah. Israel claims the boys were
trying to cross into Egypt to smuggle back weapons. But a teenager who
survived the shooting said his friends were shot as they were playing
soccer. [DN]
	Israeli nuclear scientist Mordechai Vanunu has gone on trial
accused of violating terms of his release from prison by talking to
foreign reporters and trying to visit the West Bank. The 50-year-old
former technician was released last April after serving an 18-year term
for giving secrets about the Dimona nuclear reactor to a British
newspaper.

[10. KOREA] Rice also played down the immediate urgency of nuclear threats
from North Korea. She dismissed as a bid for attention Pyongyang's recent
declaration that it has nuclear weapons as well as its decision to walk
away from multi-party talks on eliminating its nuclear program. "I do
think the North Koreans have been, frankly, a little bit disappointed that
people are not jumping up and down and running around with their hair on
fire because (they) have been making these pronouncements," Rice said in
the interview. [Reuters]
	North Korea is to strengthen its "atomic potential" in response to
Washington's hostile policies, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted the
president of its parliament as saying Thursday. Tass is one of the few
foreign news organizations with a reporter based in NK.  Kim Yong-nam, who
ranks second behind top leader Kim Jong-il, said in an address to the
Supreme People's Assembly, "We will continue to expand our atomic forces
as long as the United States conducts policies to isolate and suffocate
(North Korea)."  [Reuters]

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	    C. G. Estabrook <www.newsfromneptune.com>
	   "News from Neptune" (Saturdays 10-11AM), and
	"From Bard to Verse: A Program of the Spoken Arts"
	 (Saturdays noon-1PM) on WEFT, Champaign, 90.1 FM,
	    Community Radio for East Central Illinois
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